Monday, 18 November 2013

1989: RING RAIDERS ISSUE 1 (Fleetway)

RING RAIDERS was another late eighties (September 1989 to be precise) toy tie-in comic which never looked like it was going to - ahem - fly but top marks to the Fleetway creative teams for taking an exceptionally thin premise (the toys, as the name suggests, were tiny planes launched from a finger-mounted platform. Really) and expanding it into something resembling a fully-formed storyline.

Apparently there was also an animated series from the States although I have no recollection of it at all and I'm not sure it ever crossed the Atlantic. It only ran five episodes which sounds like it was a mini-series try-out which failed to muster the necessary enthusiasm amongst station managers to progress to a full series.

The comic (no US edition) ran for six fortnightly issues before being cancelled suddenly with all the story lines in mid-flow. A one-shot wrap-up, using the existing commissioned (and paid for!) inventory surfaced a few months later.

SLOW ROBOT

Welcome to STARLOGGED!
It's a repository, and celebration, of Geek Media (mostly print) from the 'Star Age': that pre-millennial period between, roughly, 1972 (the opening of Marvel UK) and 1999 (the release of The Phantom Menace... and the end of innocence). But, of course, we'll bend the rules when we want to.
I only reproduce long out-of-print items for historical reference. I don't include anything that's currently in-print, is likely to be reprinted or otherwise commercially exploited by the copyright holder.
Comments and contributions are most welcome.